How to Disable the Option to "Notify Anyway" on iOS 15 & 16

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Stop others from sending messages when notifications are silenced on

Co-authored by Bryzz Tortello and Rain Kengly

Last Updated: December 10, 2024

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Disabling for All

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Disabling for One Person

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Do you want to stop people from notifying you in Do Not Disturb or Focus Mode? When you enable a focus mode on your iPhone or iPad and a contact tries to send you an iMessage, they'll see the option to "Notify Anyway." This will override your own settings and alert you of their message. While helpful in emergencies, Notify Anyway can be troublesome if you're in a meeting or catching up on sleep. Luckily, you can disable this feature in a few simple steps. This wikiHow will show you how to turn off "Notify Anyway" using your iPhone or iPad with iOS 15, 16, and newer.

Things You Should Know

To disable for all contacts, go to "Settings" → "Focus" → "Focus Status" → toggle off "Share Focus Status".
To disable for one contact, go to "Settings" → "Focus" → select a Focus mode → "People".
Select "Silence Notifications From" and then tap the "+". Select the contact from the list and tap "Done".

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Disabling for All

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1
Open the Settings app. This is the grey cog icon. Notify Anyway allows someone to send you a message even if you have a Focus Mode, such as Do Not Disturb enabled.^{[1]
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- If you haven't already, make sure to update your iOS.
You can find this in the second group of settings, underneath Sounds & Haptics.

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This will be at the very bottom.
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Toggle off
"Share Focus Status". If this is greyed out, be sure you have "Share Across Devices" toggled on in the previous page.
- Your Focus status will no longer be shared. Other people will no longer receive the "Notify Anyway" option or see that you have notifications silenced.
- If you want to remove this option for select people, see the next section.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Disabling for One Person

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1
Open the Settings app. This is the grey cog icon.
- Similar to sharing your location, you can choose who can see your Focus status.
You can find this in the second group of settings, underneath Sounds & Haptics.
This could be Do Not Disturb, Personal, Sleep, Work, or another custom Focus. You can create a new Focus Mode by tapping the + in the top-right corner.
This is the tile underneath Notifications.
By default, the check mark will be next to Allow Notifications From. Tap to change it to Silence.
This will be the + in a circle.
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Select a contact. You'll see a blue checkmark next to their name when selected.
- If you want to add multiple, tap the contact.
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Tap Done. This will be in the top-right corner.
- Your notifications from the contact(s) will be silenced when you're in Focus Mode.
- To allow notifications from them again, tap the - next to their name.